Brexit To Save CIty £12 Billion A Year In Slashig EU Red Tape

By ECM Plus Staff

Britain’s financial services sector will gain an extra £12 billion a year in revenues as a result of the nation taking back control of regulation when it leaves the EU, according to a new report.

Research confirms that Facebook, Twitter and Google are spying on users

big brother (Photo credit: Vince_Lamb)

Social networks: can robots violate user privacy?

ECM Plus +++ Recent news in the international media has revealed numerous Internet privacy concerns that definitely deserve attention and further investigation, which is why Geneva-based High-Tech Bridge  decided to conduct a simple technical experiment to verify how the 50 largest social networks, web services and free emails systems respect – or indeed abuse – the privacy of their users.

According to High-Tech Bridge, the experiment and its results can be reproduced by anyone, as we tried to be as neutral and objective as possible.

Amazon and eBay implicated in data protection scandal

Privacy International 2007 privacy ranking Consistently upholds human rights standards Significant protections and safeguards Adequate safeguards against abuse Some safeguards but weakened protections Systemic failure to uphold safeguards Extensive surveillance societies Endemic surveillance societies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Online retail giant and auction behemoth site lobbyists found to be writing EU data protection law in copy-paste legislation scandal

ECM Plus +++ A European privacy group claimed today that dozens of amendments to the new Data Protection Regulation being proposed by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are being copied word-for-word from corporate lobby papers, with MEPs frequently failing to even remember their own amendments. Max Schrems, of the website and campaign Europe v Facebook, noticed striking similarities between proposed amendments and lobby papers written by representatives of Amazon, eBay, the American Chamber of Commerce and the European Banking Federation.

Half of firms suffering from cloudphobia – survey

Snoopers (sic) Paradise (Photo credit: the justified sinner)

Fear of governments snooping deters companies from using the cloud

ECM Plus +++ Almost half of IT experts are deterred from keeping sensitive data in the cloud because of fear of government intervention and possible legal action, according to a new survey from Lieberman Software which was released today.

FEATURE: The Wisdom Of Integral Management Vs. Corporate Narcissism

Meetings: Corporate Narcissism? (Photo credit: lhl)

by Mats Eriksson

You have probably already heard this ancient wisdom tale: There was once a king who wanted to marry off his daughter. Naturally he wanted to find a smart and wise son-in-law. So he arranged a test for all her suitors. They had to go into a dark room and determine what was in it.

FSF crashes Windows 8 launch with free software campaign

Activists trick-or-treat for free software at Windows 8 launch event

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /New York/ +++ Visitors to the primary Windows 8 launch event were greeted by an unexpected and uninvited visitor – a gnu.

Activists, one dressed as the free software movement’s buffalo-like mascot, converged on Microsoft’s event to distribute pamphlets about the hidden dangers of Microsoft’s latest proprietary creation. The Halloween-themed action included plastic pumpkin buckets full of DVDs loaded with Trisquel, a free software distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Oil giant demands disclosure of private emails

Chevron Corporation headquarters in San Ramon, California. (Photo: Wikipedia)

EFF and ERI fight to quash ‘speech-chilling’ subpoenas from Chevron

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and EarthRights International (ERI) have requested judges in California and New York to quash subpoenas issued by Chevron Corporation to three email providers demanding identifying information about the users of more than 100 email accounts.

Chaos abounds as BYOD costs prompt confusion

Cost confusion and chaos in BYOD (Photo: s_falkow)

Fiercely divided opinion on BYOD despite ‘hype’

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ A new survey has revealed that fears are rising around the hidden costs of BYOD deployment – as well as ‘class divides’ and evidence that company managers are using BYOD to ‘pacify’  staff.

Moreover, some IT managers are even asking ‘is it worth surrendering control just to raise staff morale?’

Opinion is still divided when it comes to implementing ‘Bring Your Own Device’ strategies within businesses, with many at the top suggesting that such deployments create more problems than they solve.

Big Corporates Choking SMEs With Late Payment – Survey

On hold after dealing with automated system (Photo credit: Pahz)

Late payments debt high enough to put UK SMEs out of business

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ As the number of British small and medium-sized businesses facing late payments reaches more than a million – with a total aggregated outstanding debt of almost £36.4 billion, many SMEs are in danger of going under.

That’s the startling finding according to new research undertaken for payment specialists BACS.

According to the shocking findings, nationally, the average amount owed to one of Britain’s SMEs is £36,000 – yet 35 percent of SMEs reported that late payment debts of up to just £20,000 would be enough to put them out of business, in a survey by BACS Payment Schemes, the company the runs the Direct Debit system.

Euro crisis to last a decade – Farage

Nigel Farage with Members of the University of York Freedom Association Society (Photo credit: The Freedom Association)

Currency crisis to bring ‘creeping European dictatorship’

ECM Plus /London/ +++ Businesses trying to plan investment for the future and commerce with increasing mountains of bureaucratic ‘jobsworth’ red tape, compliance, regulations and directives from across the sea had a wake up call this week.

Responding to the ‘State of the Union’ speech by Eurocrat Manuel Barroso, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Barroso had “totally underestimated the complete fanaticism, Mr Barroso of you, your college of commissioners and the European central bank.”

Businesses boot out banks as ‘trust’ collapses

(Photo credit: Truthout.org)

Survey finds SMEs divorcing bank managers

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ Bank managers are being ditched and divorced, as accountants, lawyers and finance directors become the most trusted financial advisers, according to new research into small to medium-sized enterprises.

The new research of 1,000 British small to medium-sized companies by Hitachi Capital Invoice Finance looked at SMEs attitudes and how they really felt about who they trust to keep their business on track.

Finance reports ‘out of date’ and ‘inaccurate’ – survey

Stack ’em high (Photo credit: ant.photos)

46 per cent of finance departments believe reports they produce are never used

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ Nearly half of managers and directors view reports produced by someone else no more than once per week. An alarming 46 per cent of finance professionals believe that they produce reports that are never used and 63 per cent believe that senior managers should make more use of financial information.

Big bank insider exposes $20bn UBS tax evasion, awarded $104m

National Whistleblowers Center – www.whistleblowers.org

Whistleblower bags massive $104 million reward for foiling bankster scam

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /Washington, D.C./ +++ Former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld has won a massive whistleblower reward of $104 million for his contributions in providing the U.S. Government with insider information on UBS’ illegal offshore banking scheme.

According to the National Whistleblowers Center, this is believed to be the largest reward ever given to an individual whistleblower in the United States and the first major reward issued under the IRS tax whistleblower law.

Business crowdfunding to boost economy

Sheffield to play host to crowdfunding event. Photo: Paolo Margari

British business owners become their own financiers, set to make banksters obsolete 

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ So fed up are British business owners with the bankster establishment, their disinterest in lending or supporting the economy that a group of British entrepreneurs, dissatisfied with ‘business-as-usual’, have come together to ‘tear up the rulebook’  and ‘cutting out the middle-men’.

Foundation sues over email and phone hacking allegations

Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF says government ‘withholding information’ about ‘unconstitutional spying’

Washington, D.C. – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) today, demanding answers about illegal email and telephone call surveillance at the National Security Agency (NSA).

British businesses hurt by poor Internet coverage – survey

Jeremy Hunt preached the ministerial code (Photo credit: Gwydion M. Williams)

Government policy under fire as new survey reveals Internet strategy should focus on coverage not speed

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ A new report of 1,500 British small businesses reveals that 57 percent stated that the ‘poor quality of their internet access’ is now adversely affecting their ability to do business.

According to the findings, by Freelancer.co.uk, small businesses in Britain are now at odds with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who reiterated in a speech at the Google Campus building that broadband speed is more important than coverage.

Location data takes centre stage in legal case

U.S. Supreme Court building.

Government faces new warrantless surveillance battle after losing landmark GPS tracking case as defendant pushes to exclude cell phone location data obtained without a warrant

A federal district court is poised to determine whether the government can use cell phone data obtained without a warrant to establish an individual’s location.

In an amicus brief filed last Monday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) argue that this form of surveillance is just as unconstitutional as the warrantless GPS tracking the U.S. Supreme Court already shot down in this case.

Smart grids at risk from cyber security in intelligent buildings

Intelligent building system – diagram.

Cyber attacks render smart grids intrinsically unsafe

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ Building owners and designers, and particularly members of the building services industry, are racing to implement intelligent buildings and smart grids, aaccording to new research from a London academic institution.

Social media shunned by Euro CIOs as 67% block content

Europe’s chief information officers banning YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /LONDON/ +++ European CIOs are shunning social media for business, according to a new study by Easynet and Ipanema Technologies.

The research study said that chief information officers are risking ‘alienating customers’, as well as ‘creating ineffective marketing strategies’, and ‘demotivating’ their staff and ‘eliminating’ their competitive edge.

British exports to ROW exceed EU

Trade exports to ROW now exceeds EU. Photo: Kaveri & Sameer

Trade figures find exports to ROW nations exceed European Union member states for the first time in 40 years as Europe ‘turns inward’.

By Alison Little

BRITAIN sent a defiant message to Europe yesterday after it emerged our trade is booming with the rest of the world.

Walmart in the doghouse again as CSR slouches

Every little helps

130,000 call out retail behemoth Walmart’s supplier for ‘forced labor’ and ‘brutal conditions’

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVWos-FBLjQ

ECM Plus +++ In yet another corporate social responsibility PR blunder, a worker’s campaign on change.org is calls on retail giant Walmart to cancel a contract with a seafood supplier accusing the retail corporate of ‘forced labor’. 

Anti-Apple campaign grows over Dickensian iPad workhouse shame

Apple: Working practices rotten to the core?

Apple factory abuses spark viral online campaign

By ECM Plus

ECM Plus +++ 140,000 people have joined up against Apple Corporation’s abuse of its outsourced workers in China, with user Mark Shields’ campaign on Change.org asking Apple to stop ongoing abuse of workers at iPod and iPad sweat-shop factory conditions in China.

The 140,000 people across the world have joined an explosive campaign on Change.org calling on Apple to protect workers who assemble Apple products from abuse, injury, and death.

Yuan trade prospects good for Britain

Britannia on Plymouth Hoe

Hong Kong and England exchange would be good for future British prosperity as euro collapses

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ As Europe collapses under the strain of its top-heavy, over-debtedness and uber-bureaucratised idealism, the prospects for Britain are looking infinitely brighter in the light of recent exchange trade talks with the world’s second-largest economy, China.

Reports that the current British chancellor Osbourne is glad-handing the Chinese in the former British colony of Hong Kong comes as a welcome refrain for Britain’s social and economic prosperity, following the disintegration of the euro now taking place across the continent.

Assets finding safe haven in Britain – report

Safe as houses: assets bolt for Blighty's bricks

Economic jitters weigh heavy as property market indicators flatter to deceive

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ The latest ‘Property Snapshot’ by real estate analysts Colliers International reveals that the lack of robust property fundamentals continues to be more than offset by international economic and political fear.

According to Colliers, safe haven investment is now flowing into British property, in what it calls ‘a defining market feature.’

Key new findings for the economy, Colliers said that despite a positive Q3 of 2011 GDP outturn, uncertainty and concerns about Britain’s economic prospects, what it calls the ‘Eurozone fallout’ and financial issues continue to restrain capital investment and consumer spending substantially.

People power now funding new businesses

Bank liquidity drought and risk aversion sees Peoplefund.it ‘crowd’ financing taking up the slack, from Frome to Fontainbleu and beyond

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ A new venture in South West England is blazing a trail in post-meltdown financing for new, small businesses.

The Bicycle Academy, tipped to be fastest “crowd-funded” enterprise in UK is a Frome-based enterprise which builds bicycles to send to people in Africa, and is ready for business thanks to a revolutionary new website backed by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.